What was unique about roman bathrooms

The Romans did build many structures seemingly dedicated to improving sanitation—in addition to public toilets, they had bathhouses and sewer systems like the giant Cloaca Maxima in Rome. In a new paper published in Parasitology, Mitchell reviews several decades of archaeological research to track the presence of parasites before, during, and after the Roman Empire.

The evidence suggests that certain parasites—like whipworm, roundworm, and the parasite that causes dysentery—were just as prevalent in the region under Roman rule as they had been during the earlier Bronze and Iron Ages. Archaeologists have excavated fine-toothed combs from the Roman period, presumed to be for removing lice.

Mitchell speculates that perhaps the steamy bathhouses made a good environment for parasites to grow. The parasites also could have benefitted from the Roman practice of fertilizing crops with human poop. In the apse-like end of the room was a tank or large basin of metal labrum, solium , which seems to have contained cool water for the douche.

In private baths the room was usually rectangular, and then the labrum was placed in a corner. For the accommodation of those using the room for the sweat bath only, there were benches along the wall. The air in the caldarium would, of course, be very moist, while that of the laconicum would be perfectly dry, so that the effect would not be precisely the same. The frigidarium cella frigidaria contained merely the cold plunge bath, unless it was made to do duty for the apodyterium, when there would be lockers on the walls for the clothes at least in a public bath and benches for the slaves who watched them.

Persons who found the bath too cold would resort instead to the open swimming pool in the palaestra, which would be warmed by the sun. In one of the public baths at Pompeii a cold bath seems to have been introduced into the tepidarium, for the benefit, probably, of invalids who found even the palaestra too cool for comfort.

The final process, that of scraping, rubbing, and oiling, was exceedingly important. The bather was often treated twice, before the warm bath and after the cold bath; the first might be omitted, but the second never. The special room, unctorium, was furnished with benches and couches. The scrapers and oils were brought by the bathers; they were usually carried along with the towels for the bath by a slave capsarius.

The bather might scrape destringere and oil deungere himself, or he might receive a regular massage at the hands of a trained slave. It is probable that in the large baths expert operators could be hired but we have no direct testimony on the subject. When there was no special unctorium, the tepidarium or apodyterium was made to serve instead. Bathers first entered the tepidarium heated by vents in the wall or floor and sweated, relaxed and were sometimes anointed with oils and scrubbed clean by slaves ordinary people scrubbed themselves with lentil flour.

Next they entered the calidarium or laconicom for more sweating, scraping and cleaning plus some splashing under bucketsful of warm, tepid or cold water.

The bath ended with a plunge into a cool pool of water in the frigidarium. In general it may be said to have been taken about the eighth hour, and at this hour all the conductores were bound by their contracts to have the baths open and all things in readiness.

As a matter of fact many persons preferred to bathe before the prandium, and some, at least, of the baths in the larger places must have been open then.

All were regularly kept open until sunset, but in the smaller towns, where public baths were fewer, it is probable that they were kept open later; at least the lamps found in large numbers in the Pompeian baths seem to point to evening hours.

It may be taken for granted that the managers would keep the doors open as long as was profitable. The emperor Commodus took eight bathes a day and saw himself as a sort reincarnation of Hercules.

Nero's wife is said to have bathed in donkey milk scented with rose oil. Cleopatra preferred to bathe in freshly-squeezed goat milk. The ruins of a private bath were found in Caerwent, Monmouthshire, England in The bath dates from about the time of Constantine A. The entrance A leads into the frigidarium B , 10'6" x 6'6" in size, with a plunge C , 10'6" x 3'3". Off B is the apodyterium D , 10'6 x 13'3", which has the apse-like end that the caldarium ought to have.

Next is the tepidarium E , 12' x 12', which, contrary to all the rules, is the largest instead of the smallest of the four main rooms. Then comes the caldarium F , 12' x 7'6", with its alveus G , 6' x 3' x 2', but with no sign of its labrum left, perhaps because the basin was too small to require any special foundation. Finally comes the rare laconicum H , 8' x 4', built over one end of the furnace I , which was in the basement room KK.

The hot air passed as indicated by the arrows, escaping through openings near the roof in the outside walls of the apodyterium. It should be noticed that there was no direct passage from the caldarium F to the frigidarium B , no special entrance to the laconicum H , and that the tepidarium E must have served as the unctorium. The dimensions of the Caerwent bath as a whole are 31 x 34 feet.

To the simpler bathhouse of the earlier times as well as to the bath itself was given the name balneum balineum , used often by the dactylic poets in the plural, balnea, for metrical convenience. The more complex establishments of later times were called balneae, and to the very largest, which had features derived from the Greek gymnasia, the name thermae was finally given.

These words, however, were loosely used and often interchanged in practice. Public baths are first heard of after the Second Punic War. They increased in number rapidly; at least were operated in Rome in the year 33 B. With equal rapidity they spread through Italy and the provinces;12 all the towns and even many villages had at least one.

They were public only in the sense of being open to all citizens who could pay the modest fee demanded for their use. Free baths did not exist, except when some magistrate or public-spirited citizen or candidate for office arranged to relieve the people of the fees for a definite time by meeting the charges himself.

So Agrippa in the year 33 B. The rich sometimes in their wills provided free baths for the people, but always for a limited time. The first public baths were opened by individuals for speculative purposes. Others were built by wealthy men as gifts to their native towns, as such men give hospitals and libraries now; the administration was lodged with the town authorities, who kept the buildings in repair and the baths open by means of the fees collected.

Other baths were built by the towns out of public funds, and others were credited to the later emperors. However they were started, the management was practically the same for all.

They were leased for a definite time and for a fixed sum to a manager conductor , who paid his expenses and made his profits out of the fees which he collected. The fee balneaticum was hardly more than nominal. The regular price at Rome for men seems to have been a quadrans, quarter of a cent; the bather furnished his own towels, oil, etc. Women paid more, perhaps twice as much, while children up to a certain age, unknown to us, paid nothing. Prices varied, of course, in different places.

It is likely that higher prices were charged in some baths than in others in the same city, either because they were more luxuriously equipped or to make them more exclusive and fashionable than the rest, but we have no positive knowledge that this was done. Other baths had separate entrances, presumably for men and women.

In the plan the unnumbered rooms opening upon the surrounding streets were used for shops and stores independent of the baths; those opening within were for the use of the attendants or for purposes that cannot now be determined. The main entrance 1 , on the south, opened upon the palaestra 2 , which was inclosed on three sides by colonnades and on the west by a bowling alley 3 , where large stone balls were found.

Behind the bowling alley was the piscina 6 open to the sun, with a room on either side 5, 7 for douche baths and a destrictarium 4 for the use of the athletes. The room 9 at the head of the bowling alley was for the use of the players and may be compared with the similar room for the use of the gladiators. Behind the office was the latrina, marked There were two apodyteria 24, 25 for the men.

Each had a separate waiting-room for the slaves 26, 27 ; 26 had a door to the street. Then come in order the frigidarium 22 , the tepidarium 23 , and the caldarium The tepidarium, contrary to custom, had a cold bath. This contained in one corner a cold bath, as there was no separate frigidarium in the baths for women. Then come in the regular position the tepidarium 18 and caldarium The furnace 20 was between the two caldaria, and the position of the three kettles which furnished the water is clearly shown.

It should be noticed that there was no laconicum. It is possible that one of the two rooms marked 24 and 25 was used as an unctorium. Hungry patrons could pickup a snack at any of the stands within and around the baths.

They could be massaged by professional masseurs and sit and sweat in a sauna-like hot room, the laconicum. Since the bathing ritual took a long time, going from room to room, the baths were a place to socialize and meet friends to catch up on the latest gossip or discuss politics.

After arriving at the bath, a typical citizen would change clothes in the apodyterium, or changing room, storing their clothes in little niches or cubbies.

Wealthier patrons would pay a slave to keep watch over their belongings, while poorer patrons could pay the attendant to keep an eye on them. There was probably usual bathing attire, though the nature and extent of this bathing attire is debated see discussion on nudity in the baths in the last section of this report.

It is known that they wore special sandals called sculponea with thick wooden soles to protect their feet from the heated floors. In general, after changing Romans were rubbed down with oil by a slave then they exercised in the palaestra.

Possible exercises included walking, running, reading aloud, mild weight lifting, wrestling and various ball games. There were lighter exercises which were deemed appropriate for women, such as rolling a hoop with a stick or swimming. After exercising they would scrape the dust and oil from their skin using a strigil, a curved metal instrument originally used by Greek athletes. After this, they would bathe, alternating temperatures as they alternated rooms. Romans weren't required to visit the rooms in any particular order, but the generally bathers would visit the hot room, the caldarium first.

It contained a bath or a small pool of hot water, and the air was warm. Some caldariums had a labrium, a small waist high basin of cold water with which bathers could splash themselves. After the caldarium bathers could go to the warm room, the tepidarium, as a transition before the cold room. Bathers could finish off with a refreshing dip in the cold pool of the frigidarium. There were several other types of optional rooms found in some of the later and more elaborate baths.

A solarium or heliocaminus, was a room with unglazed windows for sunbathing. The Stabian Baths contain a laconicum, a superheated sweat bath like a sauna. Other baths could contain a sudatorium which was similar to a laconicum, except it had humid instead of dry heat. There could be a room for anointing with oil, the unctorium, and gardens, libraries and lecture halls off the palaestra.

Bathing ritual would change according to the trends and medical recommendations of the day and baths would remodel and evolve to fit consumer demands. At the end, visitors would finish off their bathing experience by drying off with linen towels and being anointed with perfumes and oils. After bathing it was customary to go home and eat a long dinner, the main meal of the day. Baths functioned as a meeting place for guests before a dinner party bathing after dinner usually did not occur, as Romans were fully aware of the potentially fatal combination of swimming and a full stomach.

Some Roman writers complained that some people would even seek out dinner invitations at the baths by being obsequious, annoying, or even harassing. The Roman bathing establishment was a combination of a modern day spa, country club, community center, coffee shop and library. The bathing experience, as the Romans defined, it remains unequaled in American society today.

This picture, gives one the impression that the baths were once an elegant and pleasant place to spend the afternoon. Government officials and prominent wealthy people in society made maintaining and building baths one of their top priorities, striving to make them as attractive and accessible as possible. The patron of the Stabian baths would have gained popularity through their construction. In attempts to please the people and gain popularity, a wealthy or influential person might fund the waiving of the entrance fee at certain baths for a period of time.

When the people did have to pay the nominal entrance fee, the baths were still cheap; women usually paid twice as much as men. Therefore, all classes of Roman society took daily hot baths, but not necessarily in the same place.

The wealthy had their own extensive private baths, but still would frequent the public baths since bathing was considered a social activity. There were small private baths with restricted clientele, larger public baths, balnea meritoria, privately owned, built and run for profit. Slaves would bath in bathing facilities in the house where they worked or use designated facilities at public baths.

The most public baths, thermae, were gifts to the people by rich citizens or emperors and they were run by a conductor. There is some dispute over the terminology regarding the difference between a thermae and a balnea. Thermae were larger and generally more luxurious than balnea. Thermae were decorated in marble and had more ornate refinements, while balnea were decorated with stucco and were more poorly lit, though both terms seem to be applied liberally to many different types of baths.

Perhaps like the difference today between a country club and a public pool, however the both terms are used to refer to both public and private baths. Different levels of luxury were associated with different types of baths and some baths were more fashionable than others. It was common in polite society to inquire of a stranger which baths he used.

The Stabian baths were much simpler and darker than their elaborate successors because they were older and located in a city outside of Rome; they appealed to those with a stoic sense of simplicity.

Section Five 5 of 7 Conclusion www. Exercise was light and after finishing, exercisers would scrape the dirt, oil and sweat off their bodies using a strigil pictured above. Yet to the Romans, a bath was a necessary part of the daily routine. Baths institutionalized leisure. Besides keeping the Romans clean, the baths provided a space for many other cultural and social activities.

Bathing represented a balance between the body and mind, many baths incorporating lecture halls and libraries. Bathing alone was unheard of, to the Romans bathing was a social activity. Baths provided a place for friends and neighbors to meet and socialize, thus building community among the Romans. Since they were so cheap, all classes of Roman society could enjoy them side by side in a classless environment.

Politicians and the very wealthy would frequent the baths, even though they had their own private facilities, to rub shoulders with the common citizens.